Conspiracist, opportunist, liar and potential murderer – the sensational and tawdry life of Titus Oates (1649-1705) is a demonstration that many historic gays were anything but role models.
Oates was born in Oakham, Rutland, son of a Church of England minister. He entered Gonville and Caius College in 1667 and transferred to St John’s in 1669; he was called “a great dunce” by his tutor and he left without taking his degree.
This wasn’t going to stop him. After falsely claiming he had graduated, he was ordained as a parish priest. Whilst a vicar in Hastings, he accused the schoolmaster of sodomy with one of the pupils, hoping to get the schoolmaster’s post. However it was exposed as a fabrication; Oates fled to London to escape jail for perjury. He was appointed a chaplain of the HMS Adventure but was dismissed from the navy within a year after himself being accused of sodomy. He was arrested in London and sent to Hastings to face his outstanding charges for perjury, but incredibly he escaped from jail a second time.
In 1677 Oates converted to Catholicism and travelled to Spain and then France to study with Jesuits. He was expelled from two separate colleges due to his blasphemy, anti-monarchical sentiments and ignorance of Latin.
Oates returned to London with shocking news – whilst abroad he had uncovered a Jesuit plot to assassinate King Charles II. Oates was questioned by the Privy Council and confidently accused a variety of English Catholics, including members of Court, of being part of the “Popish Plot”.
Oates set out his allegations in full to an Anglican magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, on 6th September 1678. Sir Godfrey disappeared soon afterwards, and five days later his body was found in a ditch on Primrose Hill – strangled and stabbed with his own sword. It was the Jesuits, cried Oates. The 17th Century was a time of constant religious suspicion and persecution, and it didn’t take much to whip up anti-Catholic hysteria in London. Oates was given a state apartment in Whitehall, an annual allowance and a squad of soldiers to start rounding up Catholics.
In exchange for the fame and recognition Oates clearly craved, it is thought that 35 men were executed. The most high-profile was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett, who was hung drawn and quartered in 1681 (he was later made a saint). However as the trials progressed more and more holes started to appear in Oates’ story, and after a number of acquittals opinion started to turn against Oates. In a last-ditch effort Oates denounced Charles II himself, as well as his Catholic brother James. Enough was enough: he was arrested for sedition and fined.
Three years later in 1685, the Catholic James was crowned King and decided that Oates’ role in the conspiracy should be punished. Oates was retried and sentenced for perjury, stripped of clerical status, given life imprisonment and ordered to be whipped through the streets of London five days a year for the rest of his life.
In 1689 the Protestants William and Mary took the throne, and Oates was pardoned. He died in obscurity in London in 1705.
Life wasn’t kind to Titus Oates: he was gay, unattractive, and unlikeable, and in later life was used as a political pawn by the Stuart monarchs depending on their religious sympathies. However, his dangerous fantasies had fatal consequences and historians still debate his role in Sir Godfrey’s murder. He certainly achieved the infamy he desired.
Further Reading
A Queer History of Cambridgeshire 
1 Comment